Shares, prices under pressure following collapse of potash cartel

Shares in potash producers sank globally after one of two cartels that control most of the world's potash exports collapsed this week. Uralkali (Berezniki, Russia), the world’s largest producer of potash, announced 30 July that it would pull out of Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC; Minsk), an export cartel jointly operated with another leading potash producer, Belaruskali (Soligorsk, Belarus). The collapse of the BPC export cartel raised fears that potash prices would drop sharply on an increase in production due to the ending of export-cartel...